


Eliot Smiles

by Nareliel



Series: Seriously? [4]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, Parker Has a Nightmare, Protective Eliot Spencer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28950939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nareliel/pseuds/Nareliel
Summary: There’s really nothing different about his place when he walks in.  Everything is just as he left it and, yet, Eliot knows he’s not alone.
Relationships: Eliot Spencer & Team Leverage
Series: Seriously? [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2123349
Kudos: 28





	Eliot Smiles

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a quick one-shot that came to mind when watching _The Toy Job_. Now, I know that takes place in season 5 when the team has relocated to Portland. But, I feel like this takes place somewhere in season 4 when they’re still in Boston. Just because Parker didn’t voice her fear of Evil-Clown Gigi until Portland doesn’t mean Eliot didn’t already know about it.

There’s really nothing different about his place when he walks in. Everything is just as he left it and, yet, Eliot knows he’s not alone. Over the years, the job has honed his senses to the point he doesn’t need to see any evidence of the intrusion. He can feel it. The door closes without a sound, and he begins a sweep of his apartment. Halfway through he finds the entry point and relaxes. Parker. Only she would enter his place from that particular window-a position far too high to be strategically sound for anyone seeking to settle a score. She’s also the only one that ever tries to break in. The others all come to the door, usually after calling to check if it’s okay to visit.

They’ve all been here at one point or another. Hell, once the dust had settled after Nate’s arrest, his place had nearly been overrun by the other three. First, Hardison had knocked on his door with the latest version of Assassin’s Creed and a case of Eliot’s favorite beer. He’d let the hacker in even though he didn’t have a tv or console. Undeterred, Hardison had gone back out to Lucille and hauled in a monitor and PS3, which Eliot grudgingly let him set up in the living room. It hadn’t really been about the game anyway. No, Hardison had just needed some stability after Nate had ripped the carpet out from under him with that stunt on the _Maltese Falcon_. Keeping the team safe was Eliot’s job and, if hanging out at his place was what made Hardison feel safe, then so be it.

They'd been halfway through the case of beer when he had heard Parker entering through what he grudgingly thought of as _her_ window. Eliot hadn’t said a word, making the payoff all that much better five minutes later when she unceremoniously plopped down in the middle of the couch with a bowl of cereal, causing Hardison to nearly come unglued. To this day, Eliot baits the hacker with the fact that he screamed like a girl when Parker landed between them. She had been there maybe ten minutes when Eliot had gotten a text from Sophie asking if he knew where the others were. Now, Sophie was an intelligent woman, and he had no doubt she could have texted them on her own. It had just been an excuse to reach out, but Eliot wasn’t about to call her on it. That wasn’t his job. And, so he had replied that they were at his place and invited her to come on over.

After that, it had pretty much turned into one big sleepover. Eliot had cooked, and they had spent the rest of the evening hanging out until it was too late to do anything but settle in for the night. Sophie had taken the guest room, Parker had made herself comfortable in his room, and Hardison had camped out on the sofa. Any other time, he would have kicked them out-well, he’d have kicked out Hardison and Parker for sure and been a surly grouch to Sophie even if he reluctantly let her stay. He could count on one hand the times the grifter had sought him out, and Eliot wasn’t about to turn her out when she did. 

But, given the loss of their leader and the void left in Nate’s absence, it hadn’t really counted as “any other time”. So, Eliot had toned down his usual irritability, only giving the occasional growl when Parker or Hardison really started to piss him off. For a week, until the shock of Nate’s arrest had worn off, the others had practically lived with him. In a way, Eliot knew it was a testament to how much they trusted him, but he had been grateful to get Nate back seeing as it got the rest of them out of his apartment. He’d needed the solitude-especially when learning that the only reason Nate had been released had been so their team could go after Moreau. For six months he’d walked a fine line, trying to find a way around putting his team in Damion’s sights even if that meant taking care of it himself. Protecting his crew? His makeshift family? He had killed for less.

But, it didn’t come to that and, thankfully, Moreau is now behind them. Everything has been quiet recently, and Eliot isn’t sure why Parker has broken into his place tonight. But he sure as hell plans to find out. He enters his room and finds the petite blonde curled up in his bed. She’s laying in the center of the mattress clutching a worn stuffed rabbit to her chest as if it were a security blanket, and Eliot immediately knows why she’s here.

“Dammit Hardison!” The growl is so low as to almost be guttural but his muttered words are soft enough that Parker doesn’t even stir. This is the hacker’s fault and, if he didn’t like the guy, Eliot would march over to his apartment and beat the shit out of him for being an idiot. He’s been talking about the killer clown horror marathon all week and Eliot knows that, in his happy geeked-out frenzy, Hardison missed the signs that killer clowns make Parker uncomfortable. All it probably took was for the hacker to bat those excited brown eyes at her to make Parker give in. She’s crazy and erratic, but there’s a part of Parker that will always be a lonely little girl who knows she’s different and secretly just wants to fit in. So, of course, she probably didn’t say anything about her fear of an evil clown that whispers her name from under her bed.

Eliot has dealt with this before. The tell-tale sign that she’s had the clown nightmare is that damned stuffed rabbit. She’s brought it with her every time she has snuck into his apartment to escape what she calls, “the crazy-evil Gigi clown”. The first time this happened, they’d been fresh off a job that included a mark with an affinity for clowns. The con had required Parker to break into the guy’s place to find his safe while the rest of them kept him busy. At the time, Sophie hadn’t been there, none of them had completely warmed up to Tara, and it had only been a week since that bastard Rand-Eliot still thinks Nate should have let him break a few of the fake psychic’s bones-made Parker cry. So, when the thief had climbed through his window with a stuffed rabbit and explained in her own special Parker way why she wanted to sleep in his bed instead of her own, Eliot had reluctantly let her stay.

Thanks to that mess with the Steranko, he now knows what her place looks like. Eliot will never say it out loud, but Parker is welcome to crawl in his bed anytime she has a nightmare. The warehouse she calls home is no place to try and recover from a bad dream and besides, it’s not like he’s in his bed that much anyway. He wasn’t kidding when he told them he only sleeps ninety minutes a day. He has conditioned his body to the point he can catnap anywhere. So, sleeping in his own bed is not a requirement. And, if Parker needs to curl up in it to feel safe, well... security is his job. No matter what form it takes.

He expels a breath as he turns away, the sound more a grunt than anything else. He left his things by the door and he needs a shower. He starts to leave the room but throws one more glance at the sleeping thief. She looks so small and vulnerable curled around her ragged bunny that he can’t help but retrace his steps to the side of the bed. Carefully, he gathers the covers and pulls them up to nestle beneath her chin. If asked in the morning, he’ll vehemently deny that he’s tucked her in, but the gesture makes him feel better nonetheless. Parker snuggles deeper into the covers, and Eliot counters the urge to smile with an appropriate glare before heading out of the room. 

In the morning, he cooks her favorite comfort food for breakfast and Parker’s eyes light up like a kid on Christmas morning. Eliot growls when she gives an excited, “Yay!” But, Parker is undeterred. Her smile only grows bigger as she savors the first bite, making it hard to plaster on his signature scowl. He retains his surly exterior by sheer force of will because it’s what Parker expects. She finishes off her breakfast, throws her arms around his neck with a “Thanks Sparky!”, grabs her stuffed rabbit, disappears out the window before he’s fully recovered from the impromptu hug, and leaves him staring at the spot where she vanished just a few seconds ago. For the first time since he found her curled up in his bed, he allows a crack in his irritable facade, and Eliot smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> It's my own personal headcanon that Parker goes to Eliot's place because even evil clowns would think twice before hiding under the hitter's bed.


End file.
